By Prosper Noah | March 2016
There are three types of works: evil (or bad) works, good works and dead works, but they are all works! Works all involve human effort! You can corrupt the Gospel easily by requiring any type of works to be saved. It is a false plan of salvation to require doing good works to be saved. It is also a false plan of salvation to require ceasing from sinful bad habits (works) to be saved. The Bible calls these all DEAD WORKS!
Here are several ways that the Gospel is being corrupted in churches today:
1.Requiregood worksto be saved (Roman Catholics, Mormons and Seventh-Day Adventists teach this)
2.Teach that salvation is by grace through faith, butgood worksare also necessary (Jehovah's Witness teach this)
3.Require a commitment to cease frombad worksprior to faith to be saved (Jack Chick teaches this)
4.Require a commitment prior to faith, to cease frombad worksafter saved (David Cloud teaches this)
5.Teach that a person's faith in Christ is not valid untilgood worksare performed (Chip Ingram and William Lane Craig teach this)
6.Require a person to stopbad worksto be saved (Billy Graham, Ray Comfort, Aiden Tozer and John MacArthur teach this)
There is some overlap in my preceding chart. For example: Seventh-day Adventists also teach Lordship Salvation, so they would fall under both categories 1 and 6 above. The point is that they all reject“the simplicity that is in Christ”taught in 2nd Corinthians 11:3-4. The “simplicity that is in Christ” is that you simplyBELIEVEthe Gospel to be saved. The “Gospel” is three things: ChristDIEDon the cross for our sins, He wasBURIED, and HeRESURRECTEDthree days later (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). That's the “Good News,” which is what “Gospel” means.
You must realize that you are a guilty sinner in God's holy eyes (Romans 3:19). We all deserve to burn in Hell for our own sins (Romans 6:23 - the wages of our sin is death; including eternal death in the Lake of Fire - Revelation 20:6). A man must see himself as a guilty sinner in the eyes of God to be saved, otherwise why would you need a Savior? If you admit your sinnership in God's eyes and believe the Gospel, you are immediately and forever saved!!! God wants to save you, if you'll come to Him to be saved.John 6:37, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; andhim that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”John 20:31, “But these are written,that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”
There are NO works required for salvation. When asked by the curious Jews what “works” were necessary to merit Heaven, Jesus finally put the important matter to rest once and for all inJohn 6:28-29, “Then said they unto him,What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them,This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”There you have it friend, the WORK OF GOD to be saved, is to BELIEVE that Jesus is the Christ Whom the Father hath sent, Whodiedon the cross for our sins, wasburied, ands thenbodily raised-upthree days later. This is not a work of self-righteousness; but rather, of the imputed righteousness of God (Romans 4:5-6; Philippian 3:9; Hebrews 4:10-11). These three are the Gospel; namely, 1). JesusDIEDon the cross for our sins according to the Scriptures, 2). He wasBURIED, 3). and then Jesus bodilyRESURRECTEDthree days later from the dead (1st Corinthians 15:21-4). Believe and the work is done!
Do you see my friend how all of these “formulas” (as heretic C.S. Lewiscalled them) hinge upon or involve human effort? These are all the “dead works” spoken of in Hebrews 6:1. You don't repent from your sins to be saved; but rather, from DEAD WORKS. Repentance is changing your mind about what you want to do to get to Heaven, to what God says you must do to get to Heaven. You must cease trusting in your church to be saved. You must cease trusting in your sacraments, good works, confessional booth, and manmade methods of trying to merit Heaven. None of these can save a person from Hell. These are all DEAD WORKS!
Religion wants to fit us with glasses, so we'll perceive things through their perspective; but the Lord Jesus Christ wants to open our eyes so well see the truth. Eternal life is a TAKE proposition, not a GIVE proposition. Salvation will cost you NOTHING; but Discipleship will cost you EVERYTHING(excellent comparison quotes differentiating between the gift of God verses Christian consecration). God will save the vilest sinner who desires to be saved, and comes by faith, believing the Gospel. God will save a man who is struggling with sexual immorality, drunkenness, hot temper or whatever.God doesn't require that a man make a commitment to stop doing those evil works as a prerequisite to being saved. If God did, eternal life wouldn't be a free gift. This does not mean that Christians have God's permission to sin, God forbid. The first thing that God requires of every new believer is to desire the sincere milk of the Word thereby we may grow (1st Peter 2:2).Job 36:11, “If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.”
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